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FIGHT THE FUTURE

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Back at XF HQ, Mulder's using a newfangled device called a kom-pyoo-tur (instead of his usual trip to the microfilm machine) to look up the owner of the prints he lifted. The dead guy was affiliated with an extremist group called the Isfahan. He's done some explosives-possessing and the like. Scully notes that the group has recently been working out of Philadelphia. "That's 60 air minutes," Mulder says in his Voice of Significance. If nothing else, hopefully the muggers got some free miles out of this deal. Scully gets all big owl eyes at him. God, she's so cute in these early episodes with how amazed she gets about everything. "I'll talk to the Philly PD," she says, trying not to jump up and down. An adventure! With Mulder! She pretends she has to go home and pack and that she doesn't already have a fully equipped duffel bag and a passport stashed behind the copier.

Philly! City of Partnerly Lurve. Well, seven years from now. And not in Philly. Eh, whatever. Mulder and Scully are at the scene where the bodies were found, questioning the cop who found them. He says he just ran into them on patrol. Mulder wanders away while Scully's talking to the cop, and sees the old-timeiest ATM ever. A lady is getting out some money, and she gives Mulder a dirty look as she leaves. Mulder gets that light-bulb expression as he looks at the ATM.

Cut to fast-forwarded video from the ATM's camera. (How did the regular cops not think of this? Isn't a security camera the first thing you look at when investigating a crime?) There's a parade of Canadian extras getting out cash in fast-forward. Mulder and Scully are sitting in an office watching (I'm not sure if they're back in DC or maybe at a field office or something in Philadelphia), and Scully -- oh, Scully. This has got to be one of the greatest Season 1 outfits of all time. She's wearing an orange blouse with a black jacket over it, a giant digital watch, and -- you can't see this yet, but it's the best part -- the white tights that she's wearing throughout this whole blessed episode. Yes, an orange blouse, a black skirt suit, and white tights. And a huge digital watch. HOW can you not LOVE her? She BOUGHT that outfit. On purpose. With money. I mean, in the show. Gillian presumably RECEIVED money for putting this getup on, which is more appropriate. She's saying that they'll have to question everybody who was at the ATM that night, until -- you guessed it. The thugs grab Lauren, right in front of the security camera. Wow. Maybe the concept of a security camera was new back then. Lucky break for Mulder and Scully! (That was such a Law & Order moment right there. On Law & Order they will reach a dead end and everybody's standing around in the squad room all, "Well, I guess that's that, we're stuck," and somebody ALWAYS comes in right at that moment and overhears them and says "Not necessarily!" or something and produces some crucial piece of evidence that gets them going again. It's really hilarious how often that happens. Gosh, but I've been watching a lot of Law & Order lately. SVU only, naturally. Oh, Stabler. Get unhealthily emotionally invested in ME, baby.)

Scully was, of course, looking out the window or in the other room or lying face down in the snow or chasing a bunny rabbit or something when the important thing happened, so Mulder rewinds. Scully audibly gasps (hee! It's so AMAZING!) and consults her notes. It's Lauren Kyte, and she was getting out 40 bucks. Why would the Isfahan steal somebody's 40 bucks directly in front of an ATM security camera? Mulder, however, really couldn't care less about this, because there's a smudge in the video. A! SMUDGE! You heard correctly! This can only mean one thing: Paranormal activity! Scully suggests that maybe it's another person. "Maybe. Maybe not," says Mulder, which means, "It's obviously a supernatural apparition, you idiot, are you blind?" The image is too blurry to enhance -- yes, even with the fake TV "enhancing" that can do shit like rotate a face around 40 degrees or "zoom in" on somebody's class ring from a satellite image or what have you -- so there's only one person left in that video who is neither dead nor a smudge, and they'd better go talk to her.